Patron saint festival In 214 days
Feast of the Madonna del Ponte
📅 Every year, on 16 May
On 16 May Policoro celebrates its patron, the Madonna del Ponte, in the church of Maria Santissima del Ponte.
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In 280 BC the Romans fought Pyrrhus here: the city was called Heraclea, it had been founded in the sixth century BC and was one of the centres of the Siritide. Italian-French excavations have found on the acropolis the marks of a siege with war machines, from the time Spartacus' revolt came through.
Today's Policoro, on the other hand, is very young: it became a comune only in 1959, splitting off from Montalbano Jonico, and has since grown into the region's third town. The castle, which the Sanseverino gave to the Jesuits and which they turned into a monastery, housed cardinal Ruffo in 1799 and Joseph Bonaparte in 1806. There are 15,976 residents.
The Policoro guide
What to see 1
Eraclea
What to eat here 1
Pane di Matera
Where to stay 16
16 places to stay · top rated: Torre Fiore Hotel Masseria 9.5 · Casa Graziosa - Casa vacanze a Policoro 9.4
Events & festivals 1
Next up: Feast of the Madonna del Ponte, Sunday 16 May
Getting there
Nearest airport: Bari Palese, 105 km away
Tours, tickets and experiences
Bookable on GetYourGuideExperiences in Policoro
🎉 Festivals and feasts in Policoro 1
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🍝 The flavours of Policoro
Pane di Matera durum wheat semolina bread, thick crust and yellow crumb
Durum wheat semolina, thick crust, shaped as a horn or a tall loaf: Pane di Matera has held Protected Geographical Indication status since 2008.
Read more →Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
Near Policoro
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
